End of the line for Caltrain encampment

SF Insider SF Insider

Updated 8:52 pm, Thursday, September 27, 2012

Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, is seen at the Coalition on Homelessness office on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif.

Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, is seen at the Coalition on Homelessness office on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

Image 2 of 2

Goober, the San Francisco Zoo's 18-year-old Baird tapir, has died.

Goober, the San Francisco Zoo's 18-year-old Baird tapir, has died.

Photo: Associated Press

End of the line for Caltrain encampment

1 / 2

Back to Gallery

Up to 50 homeless people who live in a makeshift tent encampment on Caltrain station property at Fourth and King streets will be moved in a few weeks, according to homeless advocates and city officials.

But that's about all they agree on.

To Jennifer Friedenbach, director of the Coalition on Homelessness, Caltrain's request for bids to erect iron fencing around the property is unnecessary. She said school kids, people with disabilities and others will be needlessly displaced since the camp is working just fine with no reported hygiene or health problems.

The campers have even managed to grow a beautiful garden on the property, Friedenbach said.

"From our perspective, these people have nowhere to go so they're basically displacing people who are in an emergency situation to the streets and forcing them to experience further crises," she said.

But Bevan Dufty, the point person on homelessness for Mayor Ed Lee, said the fact that there are juveniles living there is proof the encampment "is concerning." He said a homeless outreach team will begin visiting campers Tuesday and will make regular visits to convince people to return to their hometowns, accept a shelter bed or move into supportive housing. He said the fence will likely go up in about a month.

"We're going to say, 'This change is coming and you need to think about what you want to do and can we help you figure that out,'" Dufty said. "The worst that could happen would be for 50 people to be kicked out onto the streets of SoMa which is what we don't want."

He said it's totally understandable that Caltrain has made this decision and that the agency has kept city officials in the loop.

"It's their property, and they have every right to do it," he said. "There have been complaints and concerns about it."

- Heather Knight

Detour: Mac heads, Apple addicts and folks en route to visit the "geniuses" at the always busy downtown Apple Store may have to take a slightly longer stroll for the next couple of years.

As part of Muni's Central Subway project, the Stockton and Ellis streets entrance - also known as the Apple entrance - to the Powell Street BART and Muni Metro stations closed Monday, and will remain closed for the next six years.

The entrance is being shuttered to make it easier for construction crews to work on tunneling for the $1.6 billion, 1.7-mile subway from Caltrain to Chinatown as well as the Union Square station.

When the subway starts running in 2019, if all goes as scheduled, the entrance will reopen, providing access to the new subway line as well as the BART and Metro lines that serve Powell Station. An underground concourse will connect the Powell Station and the Union Square Station.

Signs have been posted directing Powell Station patrons to the nearest entrance at Fourth and Market streets, which Central Subway supporters are sure to point out, is a shorter walk than the connection between the Powell and Union Square stations.

- Michael Cabanatuan

RIP, Goober: Goober, the San Francisco Zoo's 18-year-old Baird tapir, died in his sleep this weekend after a two-year struggle with oral cancer, zoo officials said.

His keepers found his body in his barn early Sunday morning, according to the zoo.

Goober lived most of his life at the zoo and was known for his love of corn and "willingness to do anything for a scratch from his keeper," said Jim Nappi, hoof stock and marsupials curator.

He was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive type of oral cancer two years ago, but defied odds and lived out his days longer than what was predicted, zoo officials said. Although a full necropsy report is pending, initial findings were that he had been eating well and behaving normally before his death.

Baird tapirs are among the most endangered of the tapir species, with fewer than 5,000 left in the wild. The semi-aquatic, mostly nocturnal creatures are found in rain forests in Mexico, Central America, Colombia and Ecuador.

Latest from the SFGATE homepage:

Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page.